Lotteries

Small society lotteries

The Gambling Act 2005 has introduced a new system of licensing and regulation for commercial gambling, including the holding of lotteries (excluding the national lottery).

Under the Act, promoting or facilitating a lottery is illegal, unless it falls within one or two categories of permitted lottery, listed below.

Licensed lotteries

These are large society lotteries and lotteries run for the benefit of local authorities that are regulated by the Gambling Commission and require operational licences.

Exempt lotteries

There are four types of exempt lottery that are expressly permitted as 'exempt lotteries' under the Act, which includes the small society lottery. However, while a small society lottery is not require to be licensed by the Commission it does need to be registered with the local council.

To qualify as a small society lottery, the society in question must be 'non-commercial' (i.e. it must be established and conducted)

• For charitable purposes
• For the purposes of enabling participation in, or of supporting, sport, athletics or a cultural activity
• For any other non-commercial purposes other than that of private gain

The total value of tickets to be put on sale per single lottery must be £20,000 or less, or the aggregate value of tickets to be put on sale for all their lotteries in a calendar year must not exceed £250,000. If the operator plans to exceed either of these values then they may need to be licensed by the Gambling Commission to operate large lotteries instead.

If you intend to register a small society lottery this must be done with the local council in whose area the head office is located.

Registrations will be refused if

• An operating licence held by the applicant for registration has been revoked or an application for an operating licence made by the appplicant for registration has been refused within the past five years
• The society in question cannot be deemed non-commercial
• A person who will or may be connected with the promotion of the lottery has been convicted of a relevant offence
• Information provided in or with the application for registration is found to be false or misleading

Download the forms here to register a small society lottery (pdf 20kb)

To view this document, you need Adobe Acrobat.

Administration and returns

As the purpose of permitted lotteries is to raise money for non-commercial causes, the Act requires that a minimum proportion of money raised by the lottery goes toward the goals of the society that promoted the lottery as follows

• At least 20 per cent of the lottery proceeds must be applied to the purposes of the society
• No single prize may be worth more than £25,000
• Rollovers between lotteries are only permitted where every lottery affected is also a small society lottery promoted by the same society and the maximum single prize is £25,000
• Every ticket in the lottery must cost the same and the society must take payment for the ticket fee before entry into the lottery is allowed

A financial return must be sent to the local council that has registered the small society lottery no later than three months after the lottery draw or in the case of instant lotteries (scratch cards) within three months of the last date on which tickets were on sale.

Lottery tickets

Lotteries may involve the issuing of physical or virtual tickets to participants. All tickets must state

• The name of the promoting society
• The price of the ticket (which must be the same for all tickets)
• The name and address of the member of the society who is designated as having responsibility at the society for promoting small lotteries
• The date of the draw, or information which enables the date of the draw to be determined

Lottery tickets may only be sold by persons over the age of 16, and to persons over the age of 16.

Other exempt lotteries

Other types of lottery permitted by the Act to be held without the need for an operational licence from the Gambling Commission (or registration with the local council) are

• Incidental non-commercial lotteries
  A lottery that is not promoted for private gain and is incidental to a non-commercial event. Examples may include a lottery at a school fete, or at a social event such as a dinner dance.
• Private society lotteries
  A lottery promoted by authorised members of a scoiety (established and conducted for purposes other than gambling) where tickets can only be sold to other members of that same society, or to persons on the society premises. Examples would be lotteries limited to member's of a working men's club or a sports club where guests at the club would not be expected to participate.
• Works lotteries
  The promoter of a works lottery must work on the premises and tickets can only be sold to other people who work on the same premises. The lottery must not run for profit and all proceeds must be used for prizes or reasonable expenses incurred in organising the lottery.
• Resident's lotteries
  The promoter of the lottery must reside on a single set of premises and tickets can only be sold to other residents of the same set of premises. The lottery must run for profit and all the proceeds must be used for the prizes or reasonable expenses incurred.
• Customer lotteries
  Customer lotteries are run by the occupiers of buisness premises, who will sell tickets only to customers present on their premises.
  

Contact us

For further information on registering a small society lottery or on other exempt lotteries, please contact the licensing team using the details below.

Licensing unit
Tel: 020 7525 2000
Fax: 020 7525 3077
licensing@southwark.gov.uk  
Chaplin Centre
Thurlow Street
London
SE17 2DG